Korean verbs
Encyclopedia
Verb
s in the Korean language
come in last place in a clause. Verbs are the most complex part of speech, and a properly conjugated verb may stand on its own as a complete sentence.
(or description), existential
, and the copulas.
The distinction between action verbs and descriptive verbs is visible in verb conjugation in a few places. The copulas conjugate like stative verbs, but the existential verbs conjugate like action verbs. Some verbs can be either stative or active, depending on meaning.
A Korean verb root never occurs without at least one suffix. These suffixes are numerous but regular and ordered. There are over 40 basic endings, but over 400 when the combinations of these endings are counted. Grammatical categories of verb suffixes include voice
(passive or causative), tense
(past, present, or future), aspect
(of an action - complete, experienced, repeated, or continuing), honorification (appropriate choice of suffix following language protocol), and clause-final conjunctives or sentence enders chosen from various speech styles and types of sentences such as interrogative, declarative, imperative, and suggestive.
and which, as a result disappeared or mutated in certain phonological contexts and not in others.
or citation form of a Korean verb is the form that ends in 다 -da.
Without vowel contraction
With vowel contraction
되다 doeda "to become" may or may not undergo contraction. 하다 is irregular.
derivational suffixes, 이 -i, 히 -hi, 리 -li, 기 -gi, 우 -wu, or 추 -chu, sometimes with additional changes to the stem.
This suffix has two forms, 시 -si used after a consonant and 으시 -eusi used after a vowel.
While the honorific suffix is necessary, it is not sufficient. That is, some verbs have alternative stems which must be used in addition to -(eu)si-. For instance, 있다 iss-da becomes 계시다 gye-si-da.
or a past perfect.
, or inferential
tense, depending on context. It is used to describe an action which has not (yet) occurred or been confirmed. Because this infix is so often used to describe future events, it is frequently called "the future tense," but it may be used together with the perfective and remote past suffixes, or in a present tense context. If used with the perfective suffix, this makes an inferential or conditional past 았겠/었겠 -a/-eo-ss-gess, and if used with the remote past suffix it makes an inferential or conditional remote past 았었겠/었었겠 -a/-eo-ss-eoss-gess, though this is rare.
) 던 -deon, 디 -di, or ㄷ -d-; and Jussive
시 -si or ㅅ -s-.
까 -kka, 야 -ya and 가 -ga; propositive 다 -da, 자 -ja, and 에 -e; and the imperative
오 -o, 아라/어라 -ala/-eola (with vowel harmony), and 게 -ge.
These distinctions are not made in the intimate and casual styles. Instead, this slot is taken by the intimate suffix 아/어 -a/-eo or the casual suffix 지 -ji.
One very common suffix 고 -go, can be interpreted as a subordinating conjunction. That is, 먹고 meog-go means approximately "eating," 고기를 먹고 gogi-rul meog-go means "eating meat," and 내가 고기를 먹고 nae-ga gogi-rul meog-go means "I eat meat and..." or "My eating meat."
Another suffix, somewhat similar in meaning, is 서 -seo which is, however, attached to the long stem of a verb (with vowel harmony).
Both sometimes called gerund
s, the verb form that ends in-seo and the one that ends in -go juxtapose two actions, the action in the subclause and the action in the main clause. The difference between them is that with -seo the action in the subclause necessarily came first, while -go conveys more of an unordered juxtaposition. -Seo is frequently used to imply causation, and in many common expressions like 만나서 반갑습니다 Manna-seo bangapseubnida (literally, "Since I met you, I'm happy" -or- "Having met you, I'm happy"). If -go was used instead, the meaning would be closer to "I meet you and I'm happy," that is, without any implied logical connection.
These are both subordinating conjunctive suffixes and can't (in the more formal registers, at least) derive complete sentences of their own without the addition of a main verb, by default the existential verb 있다 iss-da.
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
s in the Korean language
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
come in last place in a clause. Verbs are the most complex part of speech, and a properly conjugated verb may stand on its own as a complete sentence.
Classification
Korean verbs are typically classified into four categories: action, stateStative verb
A stative verb is one that asserts that one of its arguments has a particular property . Statives differ from other aspectual classes of verbs in that they are static; that is, they have undefined duration...
(or description), existential
Existential clause
Existential clauses are clauses that indicate only an existence. In English, they are formed with the dummy subject construction with "there", e.g. "There are boys in the yard". Many languages do not require a dummy subject, e.g. Finnish, where the sentence Pihalla on poikia is literally "On the...
, and the copulas.
- Action or processive verbs involve some action or internal movement. For a list of Korean action verbs, see wikt:Category:Korean verbs
- Stative or descriptive verbs are sometimes also called Korean adjectives. For a list of Korean stative verbs, see wikt:Category:Korean adjectives
- Existential verbs convey the existence of something, or its presence in a particular location or a particular being's possession. This category was created for the verb 있다 iss-da "to exist" and its opposite, 없다 eops-da "to not exist."
- Copulative verbs allow a non-verb to take verbal endings. In Korean this category was created for the affirmative and negative copula. The affirmative copula is 이다 -ida "to be," and the negative copula 아니다 anida "to not be." However, there are many other verbs in Korean that also serve to attach verb endings to nouns, most notably 하다 hada "to do."
The distinction between action verbs and descriptive verbs is visible in verb conjugation in a few places. The copulas conjugate like stative verbs, but the existential verbs conjugate like action verbs. Some verbs can be either stative or active, depending on meaning.
Forms
Korean verbs are conjugated. Every verb form in Korean has two parts: a verb stem, simple or expanded, plus a sequence of inflectional suffixes. Verbs can be quite long because of all the suffixes that mark grammatical contrasts.A Korean verb root never occurs without at least one suffix. These suffixes are numerous but regular and ordered. There are over 40 basic endings, but over 400 when the combinations of these endings are counted. Grammatical categories of verb suffixes include voice
Voice (grammar)
In grammar, the voice of a verb describes the relationship between the action that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments . When the subject is the agent or doer of the action, the verb is in the active voice...
(passive or causative), tense
Grammatical tense
A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
(past, present, or future), aspect
Grammatical aspect
In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb is a grammatical category that defines the temporal flow in a given action, event, or state, from the point of view of the speaker...
(of an action - complete, experienced, repeated, or continuing), honorification (appropriate choice of suffix following language protocol), and clause-final conjunctives or sentence enders chosen from various speech styles and types of sentences such as interrogative, declarative, imperative, and suggestive.
Sound Changes
A great many verbs change the pronunciation of the final consonant of the root after the addition of a suffix. Some of these changes are the result of regular consonant assimilation or cluster simplification, but some of them are irregular. The irregular verbs contain final consonants that were historically lenitedLenition
In linguistics, lenition is a kind of sound change that alters consonants, making them "weaker" in some way. The word lenition itself means "softening" or "weakening" . Lenition can happen both synchronically and diachronically...
and which, as a result disappeared or mutated in certain phonological contexts and not in others.
Citation form
The lemmaLemma
Lemma may refer to:* Lemma , a proven statement used as a stepping-stone toward the proof of another statement* Lemma , the canonical form or citation form of a word...
or citation form of a Korean verb is the form that ends in 다 -da.
Long stem
Besides a verbal root itself that precedes -da in the citation form, there is also a long stem. This long stem is similar to the so-called combining or conjunctive stem in Japanese, but is only used before certain endings in Korean. The long stem is formed by attaching 어/아 -eo/-a to the root, according to vowel harmony. If the verbal root ends in a vowel, the two vowels may merge or contract.Without vowel contraction
- 알 al- "know" > 알아 ara-
- 먹 meog- "eat" > 먹어 meogeo-
With vowel contraction
- 가 ga- "go" > 가 ga-
- 오 o- "come" > 와 wa-
- 서 seo- "stand" > 서 seo-
- 이 i- (copula) > 여 yeo-
- 쓰 sseu "use" > 써 sseo
되다 doeda "to become" may or may not undergo contraction. 하다 is irregular.
Prefixes
The negative prefixes are 안 an- and 못 mos-. The intensive prefix is 잘 jal-.Derivational Suffixes
Derivational endings are attached directly to the verb root, and are followed by the tense suffixes. These derivational suffixes end with the high vowels ㅣ i or ㅜ u which is reduced to a glide in the long stem form. For example, with a following past tense, (으)시 -(eu)si reduces to (으)셨 -(eu)syeo-ss.Valency
Valency in Korean is partly lexical and partly derivational. Many forms can change their valency by the addition of the passive or causativeCausative
In linguistics, a causative is a form that indicates that a subject causes someone or something else to do or be something, or causes a change in state of a non-volitional event....
derivational suffixes, 이 -i, 히 -hi, 리 -li, 기 -gi, 우 -wu, or 추 -chu, sometimes with additional changes to the stem.
Subject Honorific
The subject honorific suffix derives an honorific verb, that is, a verb which is used when the subject of a sentence is higher in social status than the speaker. Such verbs are used, for example, when speaking of one's elders, one's social superiors (parents, teachers, bosses), or strangers.This suffix has two forms, 시 -si used after a consonant and 으시 -eusi used after a vowel.
While the honorific suffix is necessary, it is not sufficient. That is, some verbs have alternative stems which must be used in addition to -(eu)si-. For instance, 있다 iss-da becomes 계시다 gye-si-da.
Tense
Following the derivational endings, Korean verbs can contain up to three suffixes in a row which represent a combination of tense, aspect, and mood.Perfective
This suffix is an enclitic consonant ㅆ -ss, which is attached to the long stem of the verb, forming 았/었 -a-ss/-eo-ss. This suffix, which is conventionally called "perfective" or "past" by various linguists, has many different meanings, depending on the semantics of the verb it's attached to and the context. This may be a simple past or a present perfect.Remote Past
A verb can superficially have two copies of the above-mentioned suffix, the second of which, however, is always 었 -eoss and represents a true past tense. This results in the combination 았었/었었 -a/-eo-ss-eoss (according to the previous vowel). This combination can indicate a more remote pastGrammatical tense
A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
or a past perfect.
Irrealis
The irrealis suffix is 겠 -gess, which is used for a conditionalConditional mood
In linguistics, the conditional mood is the inflectional form of the verb used in the independent clause of a conditional sentence to refer to a hypothetical state of affairs, or an uncertain event, that is contingent on another set of circumstances...
, or inferential
Inferential mood
The inferential mood is used to report a nonwitnessed event without confirming it, but the same forms also function as admiratives in the Balkan languages in which they occur. The inferential mood is used in some languages such as Turkish to convey information about events, which were not directly...
tense, depending on context. It is used to describe an action which has not (yet) occurred or been confirmed. Because this infix is so often used to describe future events, it is frequently called "the future tense," but it may be used together with the perfective and remote past suffixes, or in a present tense context. If used with the perfective suffix, this makes an inferential or conditional past 았겠/었겠 -a/-eo-ss-gess, and if used with the remote past suffix it makes an inferential or conditional remote past 았었겠/었었겠 -a/-eo-ss-eoss-gess, though this is rare.
Sentence-Final Endings
| VI | VII | VIII | IX |
|---|---|---|---|
| formality Formality A formality is an established procedure or set of specific behaviors and utterances, conceptually similar to a ritual although typically secular and less involved... |
syntactic moods Grammatical mood In linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used to signal modality. That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying... |
pragmatic moods Pragmatics Pragmatics is a subfield of linguistics which studies the ways in which context contributes to meaning. Pragmatics encompasses speech act theory, conversational implicature, talk in interaction and other approaches to language behavior in philosophy, sociology, and linguistics. It studies how the... |
politeness suffix Politeness Politeness is best expressed as the practical application of good manners or etiquette. It is a culturally-defined phenomenon, and therefore what is considered polite in one culture can sometimes be quite rude or simply eccentric in another cultural context.... |
Formality
The formal suffix is ᄇ/습 -b/-seub-. The short form is used after a vowel (written at the bottom of the syllabic block) and the long form is used after a consonant. (After ㅅ s or ㅅㅅ ss, the ㅅ s of the suffix drops, as a matter of orthographic convention.) This shows deference towards the audience of the conversation, for example when speaking in a formal situation, such as to (but not necessarily about) one's elders. If speaking both to and of one's elders, one would use the formal and the honorific suffixes together.Syntactic Moods
The syntactic moods, for want of a better term, are indicative 는 -neun, 니 -ni, or ㄴ -n-; retrospective (imperfectiveImperfective aspect
The imperfective is a grammatical aspect used to describe a situation viewed with internal structure, such as ongoing, habitual, repeated, and similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future...
) 던 -deon, 디 -di, or ㄷ -d-; and Jussive
Jussive mood
The jussive is a grammatical mood of verbs for issuing orders, commanding, or exhorting . English verbs are not marked for this mood...
시 -si or ㅅ -s-.
| Style | Indicative | Retrospective | Jussive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Formal plain | 는 -neun | 던 -deon | - |
| Formal polite | 니 -ni | 디 -di | 시 -si |
| Familiar non-interrogative | ㄴ -n- | ㄷ -d- | ㅅ -s- |
| Familiar interrogative | 는 -neun | 던 -deon | - |
| Casual or intimate | - | - | - |
- None of these are used in the casual or intimate styles, and the formal plain indicative declarative can only occur in the gnomic tense.
Pragmatic Moods
The pragmatic moods, for want of a better term, are the declarative 다 -da , 라 -la, and 에 -e; interrogativeInterrogative mood
In linguistics and grammar, the interrogative mood is an epistemic grammatical mood used for asking questions by inflecting the main verb...
까 -kka, 야 -ya and 가 -ga; propositive 다 -da, 자 -ja, and 에 -e; and the imperative
Imperative mood
The imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :...
오 -o, 아라/어라 -ala/-eola (with vowel harmony), and 게 -ge.
These distinctions are not made in the intimate and casual styles. Instead, this slot is taken by the intimate suffix 아/어 -a/-eo or the casual suffix 지 -ji.
| Declarative | Propositive | Interrogative | Imperative | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Polite | 다 -da | 까 -kka | 오 -o | |
| Plain | 라 -la | 자 -ja | 야 -ya | 아라/어라 -ala/-eola |
| Familiar | 에 -e | 가 -ga | 게 -ge | |
| Intimate | 아/어 -a/-eo | |||
| Casual | 지 -ji | |||
Politeness Suffix
The polite suffix 요 -yo appears in the informal styles. It raises the level of politeness of those styles somewhat.Attributive Endings
Attributive verb endings modify nouns and take the place of attributive adjectives.Conjunctive Endings
Verbs can take conjunctive suffixes. These suffixes make subordinate clauses.One very common suffix 고 -go, can be interpreted as a subordinating conjunction. That is, 먹고 meog-go means approximately "eating," 고기를 먹고 gogi-rul meog-go means "eating meat," and 내가 고기를 먹고 nae-ga gogi-rul meog-go means "I eat meat and..." or "My eating meat."
Another suffix, somewhat similar in meaning, is 서 -seo which is, however, attached to the long stem of a verb (with vowel harmony).
Both sometimes called gerund
Gerund
In linguistics* As applied to English, it refers to the usage of a verb as a noun ....
s, the verb form that ends in-seo and the one that ends in -go juxtapose two actions, the action in the subclause and the action in the main clause. The difference between them is that with -seo the action in the subclause necessarily came first, while -go conveys more of an unordered juxtaposition. -Seo is frequently used to imply causation, and in many common expressions like 만나서 반갑습니다 Manna-seo bangapseubnida (literally, "Since I met you, I'm happy" -or- "Having met you, I'm happy"). If -go was used instead, the meaning would be closer to "I meet you and I'm happy," that is, without any implied logical connection.
These are both subordinating conjunctive suffixes and can't (in the more formal registers, at least) derive complete sentences of their own without the addition of a main verb, by default the existential verb 있다 iss-da.